A common phenotype associated with the loss of PTEN in neuronal populations is an enlargement of neuronal soma size, increased cell proliferation, inhibition of apoptosis, and the expression of thickened axonal and dendritic processes.

Interestingly, PTEN is critical in restricting neural stem cell self-renewal and proliferation similar to p53 [119, 120], and the combined loss of p53 and PTEN promotes a synergistic increase in neural stem cell self-renewal associated with elevated levels of c-Myc and rapid growth of gliomas in vivo [27, 121].